Sparse Mode System

ABSTRACT

A listener system, or listener, may be used with an Ethernet Audio-Video Bridging (“AVB”) network. The listener may include various components, such as an upper layer application and a stream reservation protocol stack. The upper layer application and stream reservation protocol stack may be in communication with each other. The stream reservation protocol stack may receive stream advertisements on or across the Ethernet AVB network. The stream reservation protocol stack may operate in a sparse mode and may operate in a full mode. When operating in a sparse mode, the stream reservation protocol stack may transmit one subset of the received stream advertisements to the upper layer application, and may not transmit another subset of the received stream advertisements to the upper layer application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

This invention relates to a listener system for use with an EthernetAudio-Video Bridging (“AVB”) network, a method of operating a streamreservation protocol stack of a listener connected with an EthernetAudio-Video Bridging (“AVB”) network, and a network communicationsystem.

2. Related Art

With continued technological developments, an increasing number ofdevices may interact and communicate with each other through variousnetworks. As more devices communicate and interact with each other, moredata may be passed through a network and to each connected device.Therefore, a need exists for a device and/or system that increasesand/or maximizes efficiency and resources for one or more devices in thenetwork, such as those devices which may have limited resources.

SUMMARY

A listener system, or listener, may be used with an Ethernet Audio-VideoBridging (“AVB”) network. The listener may include various components,such as an upper layer application and a stream reservation protocolstack. The upper layer application and stream reservation protocol stackmay be in communication with each other. The stream reservation protocolstack may receive stream advertisements on or across the Ethernet AVBnetwork. The stream reservation protocol stack may operate in a sparsemode and may operate in a full mode. When operating in a sparse mode,the stream reservation protocol stack may transmit one subset of thereceived stream advertisements to the upper layer application, and maynot transmit another subset of the received stream advertisements to theupper layer application.

A stream reservation protocol stack of a listener may be connected withan Ethernet AVB network. The listener may include an upper layerapplication and the stream reservation protocol stack. The streamreservation protocol stack may be operated according to various methods.In one method, the stream reservation protocol stack may receive aplurality of stream advertisements from the Ethernet AVB network. Thestream reservation protocol stack may transmit the plurality of streamadvertisements to the upper layer application when functioning in fullmode. When functioning in sparse mode, the stream reservation protocolstack may transmit a first subset of the received stream advertisementsto the upper layer application and not transmit a second subset ofreceived stream advertisements to the upper layer application.

A network communication system may include an Ethernet AVB network, atalker, and a number of listeners. The talker and the listeners may allbe in communication with the Ethernet AVB network. The talker mayadvertise a data stream on the Ethernet AVB network with a streamadvertisement. The listeners may be configured to operate in a sparsemode and in a full mode. In the sparse mode, the listeners may comparethe stream advertisement to one or more stream identifiers associatedwith one or more data streams of interest to the listener.

A computer program product may have a computer readable medium tangiblyembodying computer executable code for operating a stream reservationprotocol stack of a listener system connected with an EthernetAudio-Video Bridging (“AVB”) network. The product may include code forreceiving a number of stream advertisements from the Ethernet AVBnetwork with a stream reservation protocol stack included in thelistener system. The product may also include code for transmitting thenumber of stream advertisements to an upper layer application includedin the listener system when the listener system is functioning in a fullmode. In addition, the product may include code for transmitting a firstsubset of the received stream advertisements to the upper layerapplication and not transmitting a second subset of the received streamadvertisements to the upper layer application when the listener systemis operating in a sparse mode.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become,apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the followingfigures and detailed description. It is intended that all suchadditional systems, methods, features and advantages be included withinthis description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protectedby the following claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The system may be better understood with reference to the followingdrawings and description. The components in the figures are notnecessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustratingthe principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, likereferenced numerals designate corresponding parts throughout thedifferent views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example network communication system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example listener in a networkcommunication system.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example listener in a networkcommunication system operating in full mode.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example listener in a networkcommunication system operating in sparse mode.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an example method of operation of a listenerin a network communication system.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an example method of operation of a listenerin a network communication system.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an example method of operation of acontroller in a network communication system.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example network communication system.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an example network communication system.

FIG. 10 is an example of a processing system for use with one or morecomponents in the network communication system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Demand for connectivity between network devices continues to increase ata fast rate. In many systems, a greater number of devices are beingmanufactured which have network connection and/or communicationcapabilities. For example, in some automobiles, components notpreviously considered connective are being manufactured with connectivecapabilities. Parts, such as brakes, throttle, and/or various otherparts, may be manufactured as Ethernet Audio-Video Bridging (“EthernetAVB”) enabled devices which may communicate through an Ethernet AVBnetwork. In some systems, Ethernet networks may be used to connected oneor more devices, with audio and/or video data streams being sentwireless and/or through a wireline, such as an Ethernet cable.

With an increasing number of devices being manufactured with networkcommunication capabilities and included in growing networks, a greateramount of data, stream advertisements, and/or data streams are beingsent, transmitted, received, and/or otherwise communicated through thenetwork. For example, in some networks, such as Ethernet AVB networks,hundreds or thousands of streams of data may be available on thenetwork. In many of these network systems, each device connected withthe network may be receiving and storing information and/or data aboutall of the data or data streams sent through the network. Tracking allof those streams may require memory resources and processing power. Thismay not be an efficient use of memory, processing power, and/or otherresources of the devices, such as where a device is receiving data,stream advertisements, and/or data streams that the device is notinterested in. In some devices, it may be desirable to have a componentor feature which may act as a filter, sending on data or streamadvertisements of relevance to the upper layers of a device.

A number of systems and methods (generally referred to as “systems”)which may be useful in addressing these issues are described. Thesesystems may incorporate a stream reservation protocol sparse mode. Insparse mode, a device may configure its stream reservation protocollistener to only process those streams that are of interest to thedevice. Streams and/or stream advertisements for streams that do notmatch the streams specified via a sparse mode may be considereduninteresting and simply ignored.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network communication system whichmay incorporate, include, and/or use a system and method for sparse modeoperation. The system may include one or more networks 110, one or moretalkers 130, 131, and 132, one or more listeners 140, 141, and 142, oneor more talker/listeners 150, and/or one or more controllers 190. Thetalkers 130, 131, and 132 may be configured to transmit informationand/or data across a network 110. The listeners 140, 141, and 142 may beconfigured to receive information and/or data across a network 110. Thetalker/listeners 150 may be configured to transmit and receiveinformation and/or data across a network. The controller 190 may beconfigured to control one or more aspects of a network 110, talkers 130,131, and 132, listeners 140, 141, and 142, and/or talker/listeners 150.One or more of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, the listeners 140, 141,and 142, the talker/listeners 150, and/or the controllers 190 may be ormay include hardware, software, and/or a combination of hardware andsoftware to implement part or all of the functionality of the systemdescribed later. More or less components may be included in otherexamples.

One or more of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, the listeners 140, 141,and 142, the talkers/listeners 150, and/or the controllers 190 may beconnected to each other through or using the network 110. Alternativelyor additionally, one or more of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, thelisteners 140, 141, and 142, the talkers/listeners 150, and/or thecontrollers 190 may be connected to each other directly. For example,one or more of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, the listeners 140, 141,and 142, the talkers/listeners 150, and/or the controllers 190 may beconnected to each other using a wireline such as an Ethernet cable,and/or a wireless network. Various other connections are possible.

The network 110 may be, include, and/or communicate through or with anEthernet AVB network. The network 110 may include one or more bridgeswhich may communicate with one or more devices communicating throughand/or connected with the network. The one or more bridges maycommunicate with the network 110 and/or devices connected to the networkthrough or using various protocols, such as Ethernet AVB protocolsdesignated by the IEEE. For example, one or more bridges may communicatewith the network 110 and/or devices connected to the network through orusing Ethernet AVB protocols such as IEEE 802.1AS-2001 (gPTP) fornetwork timing and synchronization, IEEE 802.1Qav-2009 for queuing andforwarding streaming data, IEEE 802.1Qat-2010 (SRP) for reserving datastream bandwidth in a network, and/or IEEE 1722-2011 related to apossible data streaming format. Various other protocols may be used.Alternatively or additionally, the network 110 may be, include, and/orcommunicate through or with wide area networks (WAN), such as theInternet, local area networks (LAN), campus area networks, metropolitanarea networks, or any other wireless and/or wireline networks that mayallow for data communication. The network 110 may be divided intosub-networks. The sub-networks may allow access to all of the componentsconnected to the network 110, or the sub-networks may restrict accessbetween the components connected to the network 110. The network 110 maybe regarded as a public or private network and may include, for example,a virtual private network, an encryption, or any other securitymechanism employed over the public Internet, or the like. Various othertypes of networks 110 are possible.

One or more of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, the listeners 140, 141,and 142, and/or the talker/listener 150 may be connected to the network110 in any configuration that supports data transfer. This may include adata connection to the network 110 that may be wired or wireless. One ormore of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, the listeners 140, 141, and 142,and/or the talker/listeners 150 may be connected to an Ethernet AVBnetwork and/or to each other through or with an Ethernet connection,such as using a cable or wireless connection to an Ethernet AVB network.Various other connections may be possible.

The system may include one or more talker systems, or talkers 130, 131,and 132. In small communication networks, the system may have only asmall number of talkers, such as twenty or less. In other largercommunication systems, the system may include hundreds, thousands, orpotentially millions of talkers. Various numbers of talkers arepossible.

The talkers 130, 131, and 132 may or may not be or include a portion orall of the features of a computer system, such as a computer system 1000shown in FIG. 10 and described later. The talkers 130, 131, and 132 maybe Ethernet AVB enabled and/or compatible. The talkers 130, 131, and 132may be configured, adapted, operable, and/or enabled to communicatethrough and/or with an Ethernet AVB network, such as according to,through, and/or using a one or more standards or protocols. An exampleof a protocol associated with communications between a talker 130 and anetwork 110 may be the stream reservation protocol specified in IEEE802.1Qat-2010. Alternatively or additionally, various other protocols,such as a Multiple MAC Registration Protocol (“MMRP”), IEEE 802.1AS-2011(gPTP), IEEE 802.1Qav-2009, and/or IEEE 1722-2011 may be used.

The talkers 130, 131, and 132 may be configured, adapted, operable,and/or enabled to send information and/or data through the network 110.For example, talkers 130, 131, and 132 may be configured and/or adaptedto send a stream of information that includes data, commands, and/orcommand signals through, using, or across an Ethernet AVB network.Information and/or data sent by talkers 130, 131, and 132 through thenetwork 110, such as through an Ethernet AVB network, may be received byother devices connected with the network 110, such as listeners 140,141, and 142 and/or talker/listeners 150.

The talkers 130, 131, and 132 may perform various functions and/or beconnected with or include various components. For example, a talker 130may be connected with the network 110 and an input device, such as amusical instrument or microphone. Information and/or data may be sentto, received by, and/or otherwise input to the talker 130 or a deviceconnected with the talker 130. For example, a user may play aninstrument or sing into a microphone connected with the talker 130, andinformation and/or data about the instrument, singing, and/or voice maybe received by the talker 130.

While the talkers 130, 131, and 132 in the network communication systemmay be, and may be described as, the physical devices themselves (suchas a microphone), it should be appreciated that in some systems, thetalker may be or may include a computer or other electronic controllingdevice, which may be used and/or operate to control the talker (such asa microphone), such as some or all of the features of a computer system1000 shown in FIG. 10 and described later. In these systems, thecomputer or other electronic controller device may be AVB enabled and/orcommunicate directly with the network 110. In addition, the computer orother electronic controller device may communicate in various ways withthe physical or other device, such as with a wired or wirelessconnection. Various other alternatives are possible.

The talker 130 may process the information and/or data received invarious ways. For example, the talker 130 may transform any signalreceived, such as the musical signal, from an analog signal to a digitalsignal. In other systems, a computing device may perform processing ofreceived information and/or data, and may send the processed informationand/or data to the talker 130. Various other processing functions may beperformed by the talker 130 and/or devices in communication with thetalker 130.

The talker 130 may transmit, send, output, and/or advertise(“advertise”) processed information and/or data to the network 110, suchas in, with, and/or using a data stream and/or Ethernet AVB signal. Suchsignals may, for example, be referred to as stream advertisements. Forexample, the talker 130 may produce a stream advertisement that mayadvertise a data stream encompassing data related to music played by auser on a device connected with the talker 130 onto an Ethernet AVBnetwork. The information and/or data advertised by the talker 130 on thenetwork 110 in the stream advertisement may be received by otherdevices, such as by various listeners 140, 141, and 142 and/ortalker/listeners 150. Various other functions may be performed by thetalker 130.

Each talker 130, 131, and 132 may have one or more talker attributes.Talker attributes may specify, include and/or otherwise identifycharacteristics about the talker 130 and/or a data stream advertised bya talker 130. For example, a talker attribute may describe a datastream, such as an audio, video, and/or command data stream, that thetalker 130 will multicast over the network 110. A talker attribute mayspecify how much bandwidth a data stream advertised by a talker 130 mayrequire in order to be received by a device over the network 110. Atalker attribute may specify how long it may take information and/ordata sent from the talker 130 to reach a listener 140, which may bereferred to as a latency or latency period. A talker attribute mayspecify what listeners may be interested in the information and/or dataadvertised by the talker 130, such as by or using a uniqueidentification number or set of characters related to each listener. Atalker attribute may specify a unique stream identifier (“ID”) for thetalker 130 and/or the stream advertised by the talker 130. A talkerattribute may specify, include, and/or identify various other pieces ofinformation and/or data. One talker attribute may include multiplepieces of information and/or data, such as information about a bandwidthrequired for download and a unique stream ID of the talker. In somesystems, each talker attribute may be related to only one piece ofinformation and/or data, and each talker 130, 131, and 132 may havemultiple talker attributes. In other systems, each talker 130, 131, and132 has only one talker attribute which specifies multiple pieces ofinformation and/or data about the talkers. Various combinations arepossible.

As mentioned, a talker attribute may specify a stream ID for the talker130. The stream ID of the talker 130 may be a unique sequence ofcharacters and/or numbers which may only be assigned to one talker 130.In some systems, no two talkers may have the same stream ID. Anidentification of a unique stream ID of a talker 130 may then be used bydevices and/or networks to positively identify a source of informationand/or data. For example, a device may receive over an Ethernet AVBnetwork a stream advertisement for a data stream that includes a uniquestream ID and may, based on an identification of the unique stream ID,determine the talker that has advertised the data stream. Various otheruses of the stream ID are possible. The unique stream ID may be a 64 bitstream ID, or various other stream IDs may be used. The talker 130 maybe assigned a unique stream ID at the time the talker 130 ismanufactured, such as by a manufacturer, after manufacture, such as bybeing generated by the talker 130 itself, when the talker 130 connectswith the network 110, such as by a controller 190, and/or at variousother times.

One or more talker attributes may be stored in one or more of talkers130, 131, and 132, listeners 140, 141, and 142, talker/listener 150,and/or controllers 190. For example, a unique stream ID of a talker 130may be sent to and/or received by a controller 190, which may recordand/or store the unique stream ID of the talker 130 and/or forward theunique stream ID of the talker 130 to one or more listeners 140, 141,and 142, such as through, with, or using a non-SRP protocol.

A stream advertisement may be a signal and/or other transmission from atalker 130, 131, or 132 which may be passed through the network 110. Astream advertisement sent by a talker 130 may indicate that the talker130 has a data stream that it can and/or will send, multicast and/orotherwise transmit over a network 110. The stream advertisement mayinclude details about the data stream, such as one or more talkerattributes that may be sent with and/or included in a streamadvertisement advertised and/or output by the talker 130. For example,the stream advertisement may include a unique stream ID of the datastream being advertised by the talker 130 using the streamadvertisement. The stream advertisement sent by a talker 130 may betransmitted across a network 110 to and/or received by one or moredevices in communication with the network 110. In some systems, thestream advertisement is sent to all devices on a network 110.

One or more listeners 140, 141, and 142, and/or talker/listeners 150 mayreceive the stream advertisements from the talker. If the listenerwishes to receive the data stream being advertised by the streamadvertisement, the listener may send a “Listener Ready” signal to abridge, the network 110 and/or talker. The signal may be a request toattach to the data stream via the stream ID included in the streamadvertisement. When an Ethernet AVB bridge receives the “Listener Ready”signal from the listener, the bridge will match it with the talkeradvertise and allow the data stream referenced by the streamadvertisement to be sent to the requesting listener. One or more thanone listener may request and/or attach to the same data stream via onestream ID. One listener may request and/or attach to more than one datastream via the stream IDs of each requested data stream. Othervariations are possible.

One or more stream advertisements may be sent and/or accessedindividually and/or alone with, through, and/or using the network 110.One or more stream advertisements may be sent to, accessed by, and/orreceived by one or more receiving devices on the network 110, such aslisteners 140, 141, and 142, talker/listeners 150, and/or controllers190. Various other uses and functions of stream advertisements and/ortalker attributes are possible.

The system may include one or more listener systems, or listeners 140,141, and 142. In small networks, the system may have only a small numberof listeners, such as twenty or less. In other larger communicationsystems, the system may have hundreds, thousands, or potentiallymillions of listeners. Various numbers of listeners are possible.

The listeners 140, 141, and 142 may or may not be or include a portionor all of the features of a computer system, such as a computer system1000 shown in FIG. 10 and described later. The listeners 140, 141, and142 may be Ethernet AVB enabled and/or compatible. The listeners 140,141, and 142 may be configured, adapted, operable, and/or enabled tocommunicate through and/or with an Ethernet AVB network, such asaccording to, through, and/or using a one or more standards orprotocols, such as the stream reservation protocol identified in IEEE802.1AS-2011 (gPTP), IEEE 802.1Qav-2009, IEEE 802.1Qat-2010 (SRP),and/or IEEE 1722-2011. Alternatively, various other protocols, such as aMMRP, may be used.

Listeners 140, 141, and 142 may be configured, adapted, and/or operableto receive information that includes data across, through, and/or usingthe network 110. For example a listener 140 may be configured and/oradapted to receive a stream advertisement and/or a data stream passingacross a network 110, such as an Ethernet AVB network. The informationand/or data received by a listener 140, 141, and 142 may be, forexample, the information and/or data sent by the talker 130, 131, and132, information and/or data sent by a controller 190, and/or variousother information and/or data sent through and/or using the network 110.In some systems, the listeners 140, 141, and 142 may receive one or morestream advertisements advertising a data stream from a talker 130. Thelisteners 140, 141, and/or 142 may register for and/or receive a datastream being advertised by the stream advertisement from the talker 130.Registration for and/or receipt of a data stream may or may be receivedby the listeners 140, 141, and 142 with a guaranteed bandwidth. Variousother possibilities exist.

Listeners 140, 141, and 142 may perform various other functions and/orinclude or be connected with various other components. For example, alistener 140 may be connected with a network 110 and an output device,such as a speaker or television monitor. Information and/or data may begathered and/or otherwise received by the listener 140 through thenetwork 110. For example, information and/or data about notes played ona musical instrument may be transmitted through the network 110 by thetalker 130, and may be received by the listener 140. The listener 140may process the information and/or data received through the network110. The listener 140 may output processed information and/or data tothe speaker. For example, the listener 140 may output information and/ordata related to the signal received through the Ethernet AVB network tothe speaker.

While the listeners 140, 141, and 142 in the network communicationsystem may be, and may be described as, physical devices themselves(such as a speaker), it should be appreciated that in some systems, thelistener may be or may include a computer or other electroniccontrolling device which may be used and/or operate to control thelistener (such as a speaker), such as some or all of the features of acomputer system 1000 shown in FIG. 10 and described later. In thesesystems, the computer or other electronic controller device may be AVBenabled and/or communicate directly with the network 110. In thesesystems, the computer or other electronic controller device maycommunicate in various ways with the physical or other device, such aswith a standard wired or wireless connection. Various other alternativesare possible.

Each listener 140, 141, and 142 may have one or more listenerattributes. A listener attribute may be, for example, a Listener Ready,a Listener Asking Failed, and/or a Listener Ready Failed attribute.These attributes may or may not contain a single piece of information,such as a stream ID that the listener may want to attach to.

One or more listener attributes may be sent with, through, and/or usingthe network 110. One or more listener attributes may be sent to,accessed by, and/or received by one or more receiving devices on thenetwork 110, such as talkers 130, 131, and 132, talker/listeners 150,and/or controllers 190. One or more listener attributes may be stored inone or more of talkers 130, 131, and 132, listeners 140, 141, and 142,talker/listeners 150, and/or controllers 190. One or more listenerattributes may be used to connect a listener with a data stream and/ortalker. Various other uses and functions of listener attributes arepossible.

Each listener 140, 141, and 142 may additionally or alternatively haveone or more listener characteristics which may specify, include, and/orotherwise identify characteristics about the listener 140. Listenercharacteristics may, for example, exist and/or be used outside of thestream reservation protocol stack 230, and/or may be used to informdevices on a network about the characteristics and/or capabilities of alistener. For example, a listener characteristic may specify whattalkers a listener 140 may be interested in. A listener characteristicmay specify a unique listener ID for the listener 140, which may, forexample, uniquely identify the listener 140 to other devices on thenetwork 110. A listener characteristic may identify one or morecapabilities of the listener 140, such as a bandwidth that the listener140 has available, a type of data stream a listener 140 may beinterested in and/or capable of processing, and/or various othercapabilities of the listener 140. A listener characteristic mayadditionally or alternatively specify various other pieces ofinformation and/or data about the listener 140. One listenercharacteristic may include multiple pieces of information and/or data.In some systems, each listener characteristic may be related to only onepiece of information and/or data, and each listener 140, 141, and 142may have multiple listener characteristics. In other systems, eachlistener 140, 141, and 142 has only one listener characteristic whichspecifies multiple pieces of information and/or data about thelisteners. Various combinations are possible.

Talker/listeners 150 may be configured, adapted, operable, and/orenabled to send and receive information and/or data through the network110. A talker/listener 150 may thus include the capabilities andfunctions of a talker 130 and a listener 140. In some systems, alldevices connected with the network 110 may be talker/listeners 150. Inother systems, some or none of the devices connected with the network110 may be talker/listeners 150. While the following discussion may onlyrefer to talkers 130 and listeners 140 individually, it should beappreciated that in some systems, functions and attributes of talkers130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners 140, 141, and 142 discussed may beaccomplished by talker/listeners 150. Various combinations are possible.

The system may include one or more controller 190. The controller 190may or may not be or include a portion or all of the features of acomputer system, such as a computer system 1000 shown in FIG. 10 anddescribed later. The controller 190 may be Ethernet AVB enabled and/orcompatible. The controller 190 may be configured, adapted, operable,and/or enabled to communicate with and/or through an Ethernet AVBnetwork, such as according to, through, and/or with a one or morestandards or protocols, such as the stream reservation protocol outlinedin IEEE 802.1AS-2011 (gPTP), IEEE 802.1Qav-2009, IEEE 802.1Qat-2010(SRP), and/or IEEE 1722-2011. Alternatively, various other protocols,such as a MMRP, may be used.

The controller 190 may identify the talkers 130, 131, and 132 andlisteners 140, 141, and 142 in and/or communicating using the network110, such as the talkers and listeners in and/or communicating using anEthernet AVB network. The controller 190 may communicate directly orindirectly with talkers 130, 131, and 132 and listeners 140, 141, and142. The controller 190 may receive and communicate information to,from, or between the talkers 130, 131, and 132 and listeners 140, 141,and 142. For example, a controller 190 may retrieve or assign a uniquestream ID or other talker attribute to a talker 130, and/or may pass theunique stream ID of the talker and/or other talker attribute to alistener 140. Various other communications and interactions with talkers130, 131, and 132 and listeners 140, 141, and 142 are possible.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an example listener 210, which may besimilar to and/or resemble one or more of the listeners 140, 141, and142 in FIG. 1. Features in the listener 210 may be found in one or moreof the listeners 140, 141, and 142, and vice versa.

The listener 210 may include a processor, a field programmable gatearray (“FPGA”), hardware modules, software modules, combinations ofhardware and software modules, memory, stacks, layers, and/or othervarious other components and/or features. The listener 210 may includeone or more of an upper layer application 220, a stream reservationprotocol module, or stream reservation protocol stack 230, a networkinterface 240, and/or memory 270. The stream reservation protocol stack230 may further include a multiple stream registration protocol (“MSRP”)attribute database 250 and/or a sparse mode engine 260. The listener 210may or may not be modeled after and/or include features of an opensystems interconnection model (OSI model). In another example, thelistener 210 may include more than one device, such that one or more ofthe modules or components of the listener 210 may be located indifferent devices. For example, one device may include a sparse modeengine 260 while a second device may include the upper layer application220 of the listener 210. Other variations are possible.

The upper layer application 220 may be, may include, and/or may bereferred to as an upper layer module, an upper layer application module,an upper layer, and/or a stack. The upper layer application 220 mayinclude software, hardware or some combination thereof executable by aprocessor. The upper layer application 220 of a listener 210 may performone or more administrative tasks for a listener 210, and/or maycoordinate and/or orchestrate one or more components of a listener 210to ensure that the listener 210 performs tasks for which the listener210 may be implemented. The upper layer application 220 may, forexample, identify, receive, acquire, and/or learn about data streamswhich may be advertised and/or transmitted over a network 110.

The upper layer application 220 may store information related to allstream advertisements and/or data streams received by the upper layerapplication 220 from the stream reservation protocol stack 230, and/ormay send those data streams which may be relevant to the listener 210 tocomponents connected with the listener 210. For example, the upper layerapplication 220 may communicate with and/or include memory and/or adatabase, which the upper layer application may use to store informationrelated to all stream advertisements and/or data streams received. Thememory and/or database accessible and utilized by the upper layerapplication 220 may be a part of the upper layer application 220, or maybe a separate component of the listener 210, such as memory 270described later. The memory 270 may include and/or store instructionsfor operation and/or functions to be performed by the upper layerapplication 220. Various other examples are possible.

The upper layer application 220 may ensure that a data stream sent tolistener 210 can be communicated to other components attached to thelistener 210. For example, where the listener 210 is connected with orrepresents an speaker, the upper layer application 220 may identify fromall data streams received from the stream reservation protocol stack 230those data streams which include information and/or data about audiosignals to be output by the speaker, and may process and/or transmitthis information to the speaker for broadcast and/or audio transmission.Various other examples are possible.

The upper layer application 220 may additionally or alternatively becapable of configuring a processor in or connected with the listener210. For example, where the listener 210 is an amplifier, an upper layerapplication 220 of the listener 210 may configure the digital signalprocessor of the listener 210 for balance, volume, bass, and/or treble.The upper layer application 220 may communicate with a controller 190 inthe network communication system. For example, the controller 190 maysend a list of one or more unique stream IDs of talkers that mayadvertise data streams that the listener 210 may be interested inacquiring. The controller 190 may determine what capabilities thelistener may have for one or more data streams based on the capabilitiessent by the listener 210, and may send stream IDs of data streams forthe listener 210 to register for. The upper layer application 220 mayalso or alternatively be used to initiate a “Listener Ready” attachrequest when a corresponding stream advertisement from a talker isreceived. In other systems this may not be included, such as in a systemwhere a particular Listener device may be “hard-coded” to alwaysinitiate an attachment request for a particular stream ID whether it hasreceived a stream advertisement. Various other functions of the upperlayer application are possible.

The listener 210 may include a stream reservation protocol stack 230.The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may identify, specify,represent and/or include a protocol for the listener 210. For example,the stream reservation protocol stack 230 may be or represent the streamreservation protocol identified and described in the IEEE 802.1Q, suchas in IEEE 802.1Q-2011 clause 35, and/or may be part of the Ethernet AVBprotocols. Information and/or data received through the networkinterface 240, such as a stream advertisement, may be passed to thestream reservation protocol stack 230, which may process the informationand/or data. The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may transmit,output, send, and/or pass some or all of the information and/or datareceived from the network 110, such as the received streamadvertisement, to the upper layer application 220 to be processed,implemented, and/or transmitted. In some systems, the stream reservationprotocol stack 230 may only process, analyze, and/or be involved withstream advertisements.

In some systems, the stream reservation protocol stack 230 may transmit,handle, and/or process the abandonment of a stream advertisement from atalker which may occur when a talker device crashes or stops streamingdata. In some systems, the stream reservation protocol stack 230 may useMVRP as well as MSRP. MVRP may allow a listener 140 to attach to a sameVLAN as a talker 130. Other functions of the stream reservation protocolstack 230 are possible.

The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may be, may include, and/ormay be referred to as a stream reservation protocol module, a streamreservation protocol layer module, a stream reservation protocol, astream reservation protocol application, and/or a stream reservationprotocol layer. The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may includesoftware, hardware or some combination thereof executable by aprocessor. The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may communicatewith and/or include memory and/or a database, which the streamreservation protocol stack 230 may use to store information and/or data,such as information about stream advertisements received. The memoryand/or database accessible and utilized by the stream reservationprotocol stack 230 may be a part of the stream reservation protocolstack 230, or may be a separate component of the listener 210, such asmemory 270 described later. The memory 270 may include and/or storeinstructions for operation and/or functions to be performed by thestream reservation protocol stack 230. Various other examples arepossible.

The listener 210 may include a network interface 240. The networkinterface 240 may be an interface between one or more components and/orfeatures of the listener 210 and the network 110. The network interface240 may receive information and/or data from the network 110 and/or maypass the received information and/or data to the stream reservationprotocol stack 230 of the listener 210. In some systems, the networkinterface 240 may transmit information from the stream reservationprotocol stack 230 of the listener 210 to the network 110.

The listener 210 may include memory 270. Memory 270 may include, but isnot limited to, computer readable storage media such as various types ofvolatile and non-volatile storage media, including but not limited torandom access memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory,electrically programmable read-only memory, electrically erasableread-only memory, flash memory, magnetic tape or disk, optical media andthe like. In one example, the memory 270 may include a cache or randomaccess memory for a processor, such as processor 1002 of computer system1000 described later. In alternative examples, the memory 270 isseparate from a processor, such as a cache memory of a processor, thesystem memory, or other memory. The memory 270 may be an externalstorage device or database for storing data. Examples include a harddrive, compact disc (“CD”), digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card,memory stick, floppy disc, universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device,or any other device operative to store data. The memory 270 may beoperable to store instructions executable by a processor. The functions,acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or described may be performedby a programmed processor executing the instructions stored in thememory 270. The functions, acts or tasks are independent of theparticular type of instructions set, storage media, processor orprocessing strategy and may be performed by software, hardware,integrated circuits, firm-ware, micro-code and the like, operating aloneor in combination. Likewise, processing strategies may includemultiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and the like. Memory270 may be accessible and/or in communication with one or more modulesof the listener 210, such as the upper layer application 220, the streamreservation protocol stack 230, the MSRP attribute database 250, and/orthe sparse mode engine 260. Additionally or alternatively, one or moreof the modules of the listener 210, such as the upper layer application220, the stream reservation protocol stack 230, the MSRP attributedatabase 250, and/or the sparse mode engine 260, may have internaland/or memory specific to the module, which may resemble or be similarto memory 270.

The stream reservation protocol stack 230 of the listener 210 mayinclude, be connected with, and/or be in communication with an MSRPattribute database 250. The MSRP attribute database 250 may represent amemory, which may resemble and/or be similar to memory 270, a datastorage bank, and/or various other components. The MSRP attributedatabase 250 may or may not be or include one or more features of acomputer system, such as a computer system 1000 shown in FIG. 10 anddescribed later. The MSRP attribute database 250 may have an applicationprogramming interface (“API”) which may be designed to notify an upperlayer application whenever a new attribute, such as a talker attributeand/or talker stream ID, is registered on the network 110 and/orreceived by the stream reservation protocol stack 230.

As mentioned, one or more of talkers 130, 131, and 132 may have talkerattributes, and/or one or more of the listeners 140, 141, and 142 mayhave listener attributes. The MSRP attribute database 250 may representa database including and/or storing one or more talker attributes and/orlistener attributes for talkers 130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners 140,141, and 142 on the network 110. For example, the MSRP attributedatabase 250 may include attributes for all talkers 130, 131, and 132and/or listeners 140, 141, and 142 on or connected with a network 110such as an Ethernet AVB network. For each talker and/or listener trackedor included in the MSRP attribute database 250, the MSRP attributedatabase 250 may store or identify where the talker and/or listener is,how much bandwidth a data stream from the talker may require, how muchbandwidth may be available for a listener, a unique stream ID for thetalker and/or listener, and/or various other pieces of informationand/or data. The MSRP attribute database 250 may, for example, storeinformation and/or data indicating that a talker 130 with a first uniquestream ID is connected with an Ethernet AVB network, identifying whatinformation and/or data to request from the network 110 and/orcontroller 190 to obtain and/or register for the data stream from thetalker 130, and what percentage of an Ethernet connection will be usedif a listener 140 has registered for, and/or begins receiving, the datastream from the talker 130. Information and/or data received by the MSRPattribute database 250, such as one or more stream advertisements fromthe network 110, may be transmitted, output, sent, and/or passed fromthe stream reservation protocol stack 230 to the upper layer application220.

In some systems, the MSRP attribute database 250 in each talker 130,131, and 132 and/or listener 140, 141, and 142 may be created and/orupdated from a separate and/or collective MSRP attribute database. Thisseparate and/or collective MSRP attribute database may represent onedatabase for multiple or all talkers 130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners140, 141, and 142 on a network 110. For example, a separate and/orcollective MSRP attribute database may be attached and/or incommunication with the network 110, and/or may store information and/ordata about one or more talkers 130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners 140,141, and 142. Each talker 130, 131, and 132 and/or listener 140, 141,and 142 may include a MSRP attribute database 250, and/or may haveaccess to the separate and/or collective MSRP attribute database.

The MSRP attribute database 250 of each talker 130, 131, and 132 and/orlistener 140, 141, and 142 may be a copy of, and/or include informationfrom, the separate and/or collective MSRP attribute database. In suchsystems, the separate and/or collective MSRP attribute database may becontinuously updated, or updated at various other intervals. In somesystems, the separate and/or collective MSRP attribute database maycollect and/or update information based on information and/or data aboutstream advertisements and/or data streams received and/or stored in eachof the MSRP attribute databases 250 of each of the talkers 130, 131, and132 and/or the listeners 140, 141, and 142. Updates may be sent by theseparate and/or collective MSRP attribute database to the MSRP attributedatabase 250 in each individual talker 130, 131, and 132 and/or listener140, 141, and 142 at various intervals, such as every 10-15 seconds orso. In these systems, the MSRP attribute database 250 of each of thetalkers 130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners 140, 141, and 142 may be thesame.

In an alternative example, the MSRP attribute database 250 may not be onany of the talkers 130, 131, and 132 or listeners 140, 141, and 142 atall, but may exist separately and/or be in communication with one ormore of the talkers and listeners. In another alternative example, partsof a separate and/or collective MSRP attribute database may be extractedfrom an external database and stored in volatile memory in a talker 130,131, and 132 or a listener 140, 141, and 142 when the talker or listeneris powered up. Various other examples, functions and/or features of anMSRP attribute database 250 are possible.

The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may also include a sparse modeengine 260. The sparse mode engine 260 may be configured, adapted,operable, and/or used during an operation of the listener 210 in asparse mode or in a full mode. The sparse mode engine 260 may be incommunication with, connected with, and/or otherwise enabled to sendand/or receive data to and/or from the upper layer application 220, theMSRP attribute database 250, and/or the network interface 240. Thesparse mode engine may be an additional and/or modified hardwarecomponent of the listener system or listener 210, may be encoded insoftware and/or stored in memory of the listener 210, and/or may be acombination of hardware and/or software. Various other combinations arepossible.

The sparse mode engine 260 may be, may include, and/or may be referredto as a sparse mode module, a sparse mode layer, a sparse modeapplication, and/or a sparse mode stack. The sparse mode engine 260 mayinclude a processor, software, hardware or some combination thereofexecutable by a processor. The sparse mode engine 260 may communicatewith and/or include memory and/or a database. The memory and/or databaseaccessible and utilized by the sparse mode engine 260 may be a part ofthe sparse mode engine 260, or may be a separate component of thelistener 210, such as memory 270 described later. The memory 270 mayinclude and/or store instructions for operation and/or functions to beperformed by the sparse mode engine 260. Various other examples arepossible.

The sparse mode engine 260 may perform various functions. The sparsemode engine 260 may receive one or more stream advertisements advertisedand/or sent over the network 110. In some systems, the sparse modeengine 260 may register for data streams advertised and/or sent over anetwork 110. Stream advertisements may be received directly from thenetwork 110, from the network interface 240, and/or in various otherways. The sparse mode engine 260 may receive, identify, and/or store oneor more stream advertisements that may be of interest to, or otherwiserequested by, the upper layer application 220 and/or the listener 210.The sparse mode engine 260 may transmit, output, send, and/or pass oneor more received stream advertisements from the network 110 to the MSRPattribute database 250 and/or to the upper layer application 220 of thelistener 210. For example, when a listener 210 is operating in a fullmode, the sparse mode engine 260 may pass most or all received streamadvertisements to the MSRP attribute database 250 and/or the upper layerapplication 220. In a full mode, the sparse mode engine 260 may bedisabled and/or may function as a pass-through, and/or may not performother functions such as comparison and/or filtering functions.

In another mode, such as when the listener 210 is operating in a sparsemode, the sparse mode engine 260 may be configured, adapted, capable,and/or operable to identify one or more stream advertisements which maybe of interest to the listener 210. The sparse mode engine 260 mayreceive one or more specified stream IDs from the upper layerapplication 220, which may identify and/or be related to one or moredata streams or talkers that may advertise through or over the network210. These specified stream IDs may represent data streams that thelistener 210 is interested in. The upper layer application 220 may sendthe information and/or data about data or data streams of interest tothe listener 210 and/or upper layer application 220 through a query, asignal, a list, and/or a stream ID query.

In the sparse mode, the sparse mode engine 260 may receive, identify,and/or determine one or more stream IDs from each of the streamadvertisements that the sparse mode engine 260 may receive from thenetwork 110. For example, as mentioned, the stream IDs of each talker130 may be attached directly to a stream advertisement advertised by thetalker 130 over the network 110, and the sparse mode engine 260 may beconfigured to extract the stream ID and/or other information from thereceived stream advertisement. Various other methods of identifying thestream ID are possible.

In the sparse mode, the sparse mode engine 260 may be configured,adapted, operable, and/or used to compare the stream IDs of the one ormore advertised data streams and/or stream advertisements received by alistener 210 to the one or more stream IDs specified by the upper layerapplication 220 and/or the listener 210. When operating in sparse mode,the sparse mode engine 260 may transmit, output, send, and/or pass onlythose stream advertisements with a stream ID matching at least one ofthe stream IDs received from the upper layer application 220 and/or ofinterest to the listener 210 or upper layer application 220 to the MSRPattribute database 250 and/or the upper layer application 220. Thesparse mode engine 260 may perform various other features.

The stream reservation protocol stack 230 and/or the listener 210 mayoperate in at least two modes. For example, FIG. 3 shows an example ofthe stream reservation protocol stack 230 and/or listener 210 operatingin a full mode. In full mode, stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and313 may be advertised, transmitted, sent, pass through, and/or otherwisecommunicated along or through a network 110, such as an Ethernet AVBnetwork. One or more listeners, such as listener 210, may receive and/oridentify each of the stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313advertised. For example, a listener 210 may receive aREGISTER_STREAM.Indication/DEREGISTER_STREAM.Indication for every streamadvertisement 310, 311, 312, and 313 that is added to or removed from anetwork 110.

The stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 may be received by thelistener 210 directly and/or through or using a network interface 240,such as an Ethernet AVB interface. The stream advertisements 310, 311,312, and 313 advertised on the network 110 may include talker attributesrelated to a talker 130, 131, and 132 that may have advertised and/ortransmitted the stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313. Forexample, each stream advertisement 310, 311, 312, and 313 may includeand/or be related to a unique stream ID of the talker who advertised thestream advertisement. Stream advertisement 310 may relate to and/or havea stream ID of “a,” stream advertisement 311 may relate to and/or have astream ID of “b,” stream advertisement 312 may relate to and/or have astream ID of “c,” and/or stream advertisement 313 may relate to and/orhave a stream ID of “d.” Various other configurations are possible.

The stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 may be transmitted,output, sent, and/or passed through the sparse mode engine 260, whichmay be disabled and/or may not affect, alter, process, or otherwisemodify the stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313. The streamadvertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 may be transmitted, output, sent,and/or otherwise passed to the MSRP attribute database 250. The MSRPattribute database 250 may or may not record a receipt of the streamadvertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313. The MSRP attribute database 250may or may not process or alter the stream advertisements 310, 311, 312,and 313. The MSRP attribute database 250 may notify and/or pass all ofthe stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 received by the streamreservation protocol stack 230 to the upper layer application 220, suchas through or using an application programming interface.

In full mode, all stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 receivedby the listener 210 may ultimately be sent to the upper layerapplication 220. The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may send aREGISTER_STREAM.Indication/DEREGISTER_STREAM.Indication for every streamadvertisement 310, 311, 312, and 313 that is added to or removed from anetwork 110 to the upper layer application 220. In some systems, thismay result in a lot of messages being passed between the streamreservation protocol stack 230 and the upper layer application 220.

The upper layer application 220 may store information about all of thestream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 received from the MSRPattribute database 250. In some systems, the upper layer application 220may only be interested in less than all of the stream advertisements310, 311, 312, and 313. There may be stream advertisements 310, 311,312, and 313 that relate to one or more data streams that the upperlayer application 220 may not be interested in, desire to receive, careabout, be capable or dedicated to processing, and/or otherwise may notbe of value to the upper layer application 220. The upper layerapplication 220 may store information about all of the received streamadvertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313, but may, in some systems, onlyexecute functions, take action, and/or process some of the streamadvertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313, while ignoring functions and/orstream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 that may relate to datastreams that the listener 210 is not programmed to process. The upperlayer application 220 may parse through the stream advertisements 310,311, 312, and 313 to determine stream advertisements and/or data streamsadvertised that are of interest and/or capable and intended to beprocessed by the upper layer application 220 from the remainder of thestream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313. The upper layerapplication 220 may not take further action for those streamadvertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 that are not of interest to theupper layer application 220. As such, in some systems, an upper layerapplication 220 of a listener 210 may receive and store informationand/or data about stream advertisements that the listener 210 may notneed to store.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the stream reservation protocol stack 230and/or listener 210 operating in a sparse mode. Sparse mode may directlyaffect a REGISTER_STREAM.Indication, such as an indication detailed inIEEE 802.1Qat clause 35.2.3.1.2, that may occur when a talker registersa new stream on a network. Sparse mode may also or alternativelydirectly affect a DEREGISTER_STREAM.Indication, such as an indicationdetailed in IEEE 802.1Qat clause 35.2.3.1.4, that may occur when atalker removes a stream registration. Other variations are possible.

A stream reservation protocol stack 230 and/or listener 210 may be setto operate in either a full mode or a sparse mode. A stream reservationprotocol stack 230 and/or listener 210 may switch or alternate between afull mode and a sparse mode in various ways. For example, an upper layerapplication 220 of the listener 210 may send a mode switch signal 410 tothe stream reservation protocol stack 230. In circumstances where thelistener 210 is operating in a full mode, the mode switch signal 410 maybe, for example, “Mode=Sparse.” In circumstances where the streamreservation protocol stack 230 and/or listener 210 is operating in asparse mode, the mode switch signal 410 may be, for example,“Mode=Full.” Various other mode switch signals 410 may be possible, suchas where a listener 210 may be configured, adapted, operable, and/orused in different modes.

The mode switch signal 410 received by the stream reservation protocolstack 230 may trigger and/or configure the stream reservation protocolstack 230 to run in the mode specified by the mode switch signal 410.For example, where a mode switch signal 410 specifying “Mode=Sparse” isreceived, the stream reservation protocol stack 230 may operate in asparse mode. Alternatively, where a mode switch signal 410 specifying“Mode=Full” is received, the stream reservation protocol stack 230 mayoperate in a full mode. Various other configurations are possible.

When a sparse mode of operation is desired and/or specified, such as viaa mode switch signal 410, the upper layer application 220 mayadditionally or alternatively send one or more stream IDs to the streamreservation protocol stack 230 and/or the spare mode engine 260. Forexample, an upper layer application 220 may send a stream ID query 420to the sparse mode engine 260, identifying one or more stream IDs forwhich the listener 210 and/or upper layer application 220 may beinterested in. For example, the upper layer application 220 may send astream ID query 420 indicating “SID=c” to the sparse mode engine. Thisstream ID query 420 of “SID=c” may indicate that the listener 210 isinterested in receiving a data stream with the stream ID of “c” if andwhen a data stream with a stream ID of “c” is identified as being sentthrough or across the network 110. The stream ID query 420 may also, oralternatively, identify stream IDs that the upper layer application 220and/or listener 210 may no longer be interested in.

The stream ID query 420 may be or may be in the form of a REGISTER_QUERYquery, and/or may be used to inform the stream reservation protocolstack 230 that the upper layer application 220 is interest in theparticular stream ID and wishes to be notified, such as via aREGISTER_STREAM.Indication indication, whenever the stream ID is addedto or removed from the network. An example of a stream ID query 420 maybe:

int REGISTER_QUERY (streamID_t*streamID)

This function may be called to register a stream from a listener'sinterest list when the listener 210 is in sparse mode. “streamID” may bea pointer to a streamID_t structure, to identify the stream. A “0” maybe returned if succeeded, and a “−1” may be returned if failed.

The stream ID query 420 may be or may be in the form of aDEREGISTER_QUERY query, and/or may be used to inform the streamreservation protocol stack 230 that the upper layer application 220 isno longer interest in the particular stream ID and does not wish to benotified about the stream in the future. An example of a stream ID query420 may be:

int DEREGISTER_QUERY (streamID_t*streamID)

This function may be called to deregister a stream from a listener'sinterest list when the listener 210 is in sparse mode. “streamID” may bea pointer to a streamID_t structure, to identify the stream. A “0” maybe returned if succeeded, and a “−1” may be returned if failed.

The stream ID query 420 may include more than one stream ID and/oridentify more than one data stream. For example, a stream ID query 420may indicate “SID=T, U, V,” indicating the listener 210 is interested inreceiving each of the data streams “T,” “U,” and “V,” if and/or wheneach of these streams are advertised through the network 110. The upperlayer application 220 may identify more than one stream ID in a givenstream ID query 420. The upper layer application 220 may send more thanone stream ID query 420 to the stream reservation protocol stack 230and/or the sparse mode engine 260. Various other combinations arepossible.

The stream ID query 420 may identify and/or specify the stream ID of oneor more data streams for which the upper layer application 220 and/orthe listener 210 may wish to receive and/or are interested in and/orwould like to register to receive. A listener 210 may be interested invarious data streams for various reasons. For example, a listener 210may be interested in a data stream which the listener 210 is capable of,designated for, and/or otherwise required to process and/or furthertransmit. A listener 210 may additionally or alternatively be interestedin a data stream which a controller 190 has told the listener 210 toregister for. For example, where the listener 210 is a left speaker, thelistener 210 may be interested in information and/or data related to aleft audio signal. The speaker may be configured and/or operable tooutput left audio data streams, and therefore may desire, be configured,and/or be adapted to register for one or more left audio data streamssent through the network 110. In this example, the upper layerapplication 220 may send a stream ID query 420 to the stream reservationprotocol stack 230 and/or the sparse mode engine 260 specifying thestream ID for one or more left audio data streams sent from one or moretalkers, such as a microphone talker and/or a guitar talker. While otherdata streams, such as video or command data streams, may be passedthrough or on the network 110, the listener 210 may not be capable ofprocessing these video or command data streams. The upper layerapplication 220 may not send stream IDs related to the video or commanddata streams, as receiving and storing information and/or data relatedto the video or command stream advertisements and/or data streams by thespeaker listener 210 may be a waste of memory and/or resources for thespeaker listener 210.

The stream reservation protocol stack 230 and/or the sparse mode engine260 may receive the stream ID query 420 identifying the stream IDs ofone or more talkers or data streams that the listener 210 is interestedin. The stream reservation protocol stack 230 may keep a store and/orkeep track of stream IDs identified in stream ID queries 420, and/orstream IDs that have been de-registered for by the upper layerapplication 220. The sparse mode engine 260 may compare each of thestream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 received over the network110 to the stream IDs identified in the stream ID query 420 and/orstored by the stream reservation protocol stack 230. When operating insparse mode, the sparse mode engine 260 may not send any streamadvertisements to the MSRP attribute database 250 or the upper layerapplication 220 that do not include or match the stream IDs specified inthe stream ID query 420. The sparse mode engine 260 may only send,forward, or allow to pass through those stream advertisements that areor include a stream ID that matches a stream IDs identified in thestream ID query 420. The sparse mode engine 260 may filter out allstream advertisements that relate to data streams that the listener 210is not interested in, cannot process, and/or is not capable of furtherusing or interpreting. Various alternatives are possible.

The mode switch signal 410 and the stream ID query 420 may be differentsignals, with the mode switch signal 410 being sent prior to a stream IDquery 420. Multiple stream ID queries 420 may be sent at various times.In other systems, the mode switch signal 410 and the stream ID query 420may be the same signal and/or may be sent at the same time to the streamreservation protocol stack 230 and/or the sparse mode engine 260.Various combinations are possible.

A stream advertisement, such as stream advertisement 312, may have astream ID which may match one or more of the stream IDs sent with thestream ID query 420. For example, where the stream ID query 420specifies a data stream with a stream ID “c,” the stream advertisement312, which has or includes a stream ID “c,” may match the stream IDspecified in the stream ID query 420. The sparse mode engine 260 mayidentify and/or determine that the stream advertisement 312 has amatching stream ID with one of the stream IDs sent with the stream IDquery 420. For example, the sparse mode engine 260 may identify,determine and/or extract the talker attributes from the streamadvertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313. The talker attributes may includethe stream ID of the talkers who advertised the stream advertisements310, 311, 312, and 313. The sparse mode engine 260 may compare theextracted stream IDs with the stream IDs identified in the stream IDquery 420, and/or may determine a stream advertisement 312 that maymatch one or more of the stream IDs from the stream ID query 420.

The matching stream advertisement 312 may be transmitted, output, sent,and/or passed from the sparse mode engine 260 to the MSRP attributedatabase 250 and/or to the upper layer application 220. Operation of thesparse mode engine 260 when the listener 210 operates in sparse mode maydiffer from operation of the sparse mode engine 260 when the listener210 operates in full mode, in that the rest of the stream advertisements310, 311, and 313 which do not have or match a stream ID from the streamID query 420 may not be transmitted, output, sent, and/or passed fromthe sparse mode engine 260 to the MSRP attribute database 250.

The MSRP attribute database 250 may or may not record a receipt of thematching stream advertisement 312. The MSRP attribute database 250 mayor may not process or alter the stream advertisement 312. In somesystems, the MSRP attribute database 250 may only contain entries forthe stream advertisements which match the stream ID query 420, and/ormay not contain entries for all of the stream advertisements 310, 311,312, and 313. The MSRP attribute database 250 may pass the streamadvertisement 312 to the upper layer application 220.

The upper layer application 220 may store information about the streamadvertisement 312 received from the MSRP attribute database 250. Theupper layer application 220 may process and/or transmit the receivedstream advertisement 312. Other functions are possible.

A stream reservation protocol stack 230 and/or listener 210 may switchback and forth between full mode operation and sparse mode operation invarious ways, such as through or using a mode switch signal 410, and/orat the direction of a controller 190. Switching between a full mode anda sparse mode, or between various other modes, may be prompted and/orresult from a signal received by the upper layer application 220 and/orthe listener 210. For example, the upper layer application 220 mayreceive a signal from a controller 190 on a network, which may indicatethat the listener 210 should send a mode switch signal 410 and/or switchoperation to a sparse mode or a full mode. In other systems orcircumstances, the upper layer application 220 may send a mode switchsignal 410 without prompting or receipt of a signal from the controller190 or over the network. For example, the upper layer application 220may identify, determine, and/or recognize that a certain amount ofmemory, resources, and/or processing power has been or is being used bythe listener 210. The upper layer application 220 may, based on thisdetermination, switch an operation from a full mode to a sparse mode. Inthis example, the upper layer application 220 may, for example, querythe controller 190 and/or network 110 for talker attributes and/orstream IDs of interest to and/or processed by the listener 210, or mayidentify these talker attributes and/or stream IDs in another way. Theupper layer application 220 may then forward the talker attributesand/or stream IDs to the stream reservation protocol stack and/or sparsemode engine 260. Various other configurations and methods are possible.

The network communication system may include one or more devices whichmay be Ethernet AVB enabled and may be capable of operating in a sparsemode. The network communication system may include devices that do notuse sparse mode. This may be advantageous in that a networkcommunication system may not need to be completely renovated and/ormodified to accommodate sparse mode operation. Instead, devices whichare capable of operating in a sparse mode may be added and/orintermingled with non-sparse mode enabled devices.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method of operation for a stream reservationprotocol stack 230 and/or a sparse mode engine 260 of the listener 210.The method of FIG. 5 may begin at block 502 with the listener operatingin full mode. The method may proceed to block 504, where the streamreservation protocol stack 230 may receive all stream advertisements310, 311, 312, and 313 from the network 110. At block 504, all of thereceived stream advertisements 310, 311, 312, and 313 may betransmitted, output, sent, forwarded, and/or passed to the upper layerapplication 220 of the listener 210.

The method may proceed to block 506, where it is determined whether ornot a sparse mode signal is received. For example, at block 506 it maybe determined whether a mode switch signal 410 specifying “Mode=Sparse”is received by the stream reservation protocol stack 230 from an upperlayer application 220. If no sparse mode signal is received at block506, the method may return to block 504. In some methods, the streamreservation protocol stack 230 may continuously receive all streamadvertisements from the network 110 and may forward all received streamadvertisements to the upper layer application 220 up to and until asparse mode signal, such as a mode switch signal 410 specifying a sparsemode, is received by the stream reservation protocol stack 230, at whichpoint the method may proceed to blocks 506 and 508.

If a mode switch signal 410, such as “Mode=Sparse,” is received by thestream reservation protocol stack 230 at block 506, the method mayproceed to block 508, where the listener 210 now operates in sparsemode. At block 510, the stream reservation protocol stack 230 mayreceive IDs of data streams of interest from the upper layer application220, such as in a stream ID query 420. In some methods, the stream IDquery 420 may be part of and/or received simultaneously with a modeswitch signal 410. The received stream IDs identified in the stream IDquery 420 may be stored, for example, in the sparse mode engine 260.Stream ID queries 420 may be received at various times when the listener210 is operating in sparse mode.

After receiving or otherwise identifying or determining the stream IDsof interest to the listener 210 from the upper layer application 220,the method may proceed to block 512, where the stream reservationprotocol stack 230 receives all stream advertisements from the network.At block 512, the stream reservation protocol stack 230 may only forwardthose stream advertisements which have stream IDs that match the streamIDs identified by the upper layer application 220, such as in the streamID query 420. For example, the sparse mode engine 260 may compare thestream IDs of the stream advertisements received from or across thenetwork 110 with those stream IDs identified in the stream ID query 420,and may only forward and/or allow to pass those stream advertisementswith matching stream IDs.

The method may proceed to block 514, where it is determined whether ornot a full mode signal is received. For example, at block 514 it may bedetermined whether a mode switch signal 410 specifying “Mode=Full,” isreceived by the stream reservation protocol stack 230 from an upperlayer application 220. If no full mode signal is received at block 514,the method may return to block 512. In some methods, the streamreservation protocol stack 230 may continuously receive all streamadvertisements from the network 110 and may forward only those streamadvertisements with matching stream IDs up to and until a full modesignal, such as a mode switch signal 410 specifying a full mode, isreceived by the stream reservation protocol stack 230, at which pointthe method may proceed to blocks 514 and 502.

If a mode switch signal 410, such as “Mode=Full,” is received by thestream reservation protocol stack 230 at block 514, the method mayreturn to block 502, where the listener 210 now operates in full mode.If no full mode signal was received, the method may return to block 512.In some other systems, the method may return to block 510 if no fullmode signal is received. In other systems, the method may return toblock 512, but may accept and add any new stream IDs identified by theupper layer application 220 at any time during operation in sparse mode.

The method may proceed continuously in the manner described above whenthe listener 210 is operating. While the method is shown as beginning atblock 502 with the listener 210 operating in full mode, in othercircumstances, the method may begin at block 508 with the listeneroperating in sparse mode. In some systems, once stream IDs have firstbeen identified and/or specified, such as in block 510, this step may beskipped during subsequent method cycles, and/or after a listener 210 hasswitched operation modes to full mode and then back to sparse mode.Various other alternatives and/or configurations are possible.

FIG. 6 depicts a method of operation of a listener 210 upon receipt of astream advertisement from the network. The method may begin at block602. At block 604, the stream reservation protocol stack 230 may receivethe stream advertisement from, across, and/or through the network 110.At block 606, it may be determined whether the listener 210 is operatingin a full mode or a sparse mode. While block 606 may be shown as adecision block occurring after receipt of the stream advertisement fromthe network 110, in some systems, it may be decided and/or apparentbefore receipt of the stream advertisement what mode the listener 210may be operating in.

If the listener 210 is operating in the full mode, the method mayproceed to block 608, where the stream reservation protocol stack 230may forward the received stream advertisement to the upper layerapplication 220. This may be done, for example, regardless of the talkerwho advertised the stream advertisement and/or the content orinformation included in the stream advertisement. In this block 608, thesparse mode engine 260 may, for example, forward all streams through tothe MSRP attribute database 250, which may then pass the streamadvertisements through to the upper layer application 220. If,alternatively, the listener 210 is operating in a sparse mode, themethod may proceed to block 610. At block 610, the sparse mode engine260 may compare the received stream advertisement from the network 110with any streams identified by the listener 210 and/or the upper layerapplication 220 as being of interest to the listener 210, such as thosestream IDs identified in a stream ID query 420. If the streamadvertisement received from the network 110 matches one or more of thestreams of interest, such as any of the stream IDs specified in thestream ID query 420, the method may proceed to block 612 where thematching stream advertisement is sent by the sparse mode engine 260 tothe MSRP attribute database 250 and on to the upper layer application220. If, at block 610, the received stream advertisement does not matchthe streams identified, such as in the stream ID query 420, the methodmay proceed to block 614, and no stream advertisement may be forwardedby the stream reservation protocol stack 230 to the upper layerapplication 220. This method may, for example, be repeated each time astream advertisement is received by the stream reservation protocolstack 230 from the network 110.

A controller 190 may, in some systems, arrange, orchestrate, and/orcontribute to the operation of the network communication system and/orvarious talkers 130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners 140, 141, and 142operating in a sparse mode. For example, the controller 190 may identifyand/or communicate with one or more talkers 130, 131, and 132 that maybe connected with the network 110. The controller 190 may identify,specify, assign, and/or otherwise determine a unique stream ID for eachof the talkers 130, 131, and 132. For example, the controller 190 mayrecord and/or store designated stream IDs for each of the talkers 130,131, and 132. Alternatively, the controller 190 may assign each of thetalkers 130, 131, and 132 a unique stream ID, and may record and/orstore information and/or data about the assigned stream ID. The streamIDs for each of the talkers 130, 131, and 132 may be different from eachother, such that an identification of a stream ID may also identify thetalker source of the stream. The controller 190 may store and/or accessa complete list of stream IDs for some or all of the talkers 130, 131,and 132. In some systems, a controller 190 may access, control, operate,and/or update a separate and/or collective MSRP attribute database withinformation about each of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, and/or maycommunicate updates to the MSRP attribute databases 250 of one or moreof the talkers 130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners 140, 141, and 142.

The controller 190 may identify and/or communicate with one or more ofthe listeners 140, 141, and 142. The controller 190 may identify and/ordetermine which of the talkers 130, 131, and 132 are of importance,relevant to, and/or expected to be used by a listener 140, 141, and 142.For example, each of the listeners 140, 141, and 142 may includelistener characteristics which may be received and/or identified by thecontroller 190. The listener characteristics may identify the specifictalkers and/or the data types that the listener 140 may request,require, and/or be interested in. For example, a listener 140 that is aspeaker may have a listener characteristic that indicates that thelistener 140 is interested in data streams related to a left audiosignal. The controller 190 may communicate with the speaker, and/or maydetermine based on the listener characteristic that the speaker willonly be responsive to and/or require data streams that are related to aleft audio signal. In other systems, a user may specify to thecontroller 190 what talkers 130, 131, and 132 and/or data streams one ormore of the listeners 140, 141, and 142 may be interested in. Variousother methods of determining, with a controller 190, the data streamsthat a listener 140 may require or be interested in are possible.

The controller 190 may send a signal and/or otherwise communicate withone or more of the listener 140, 141, and 142. The controller 190 mayinform and/or alert the listeners 140, 141, and 142 of the stream IDswhich the listeners 140, 141, and 142 may be interested in. For example,the controller 190 may communicate with an upper layer application 220of the listener 140 and send to the upper layer application 220 a listof one or more stream IDs which the listener 140 may be interested in.This communication from the controller 190 to the listener 140 may bemade, for example, using a non-SRP protocol and/or without the use of astream reservation protocol stack 230. The controller 190 may tell alistener 140 to listen and/or monitor stream advertisements across anetwork 110, and when the listener 140 sees a particular and/orspecified stream ID for a data stream being advertised with a streamadvertisement, to register to receive that data stream. In some systems,when the listener 140 then enters the sparse mode, the list of one ormore stream IDs sent from the controller 190 to the listener 140 may beforwarded from the upper layer application 220 to the sparse mode engine260 as a stream ID query 420, and the system may operate as previouslydiscussed. In these ways, for example, a controller 190 may assist alistener 140 in operating in a sparse mode. Other methods of operationare possible.

FIG. 7 depicts one method of how a controller 190 may function in asparse mode in a network communication system with one or more talkers130, 131, and 132 and/or one or more listeners 140, 141, and 142. Themethod may begin at block 702 where a controller 190 may identify and/orassign unique stream IDs to each talker 130, 131, and 132 connected witha network 110. In some systems, the controller 190 may merely identifyand/or determine the pre-assigned and/or designated unique stream IDalready existing for each talker 130, 131, and 132. In other systems,the controller 190 may assign a unique stream ID to each talker 130,131, and 132.

In block 704, the controller 190 may identify a listener 140 connectedwith the network 110 and not previous identified by the controller 190.In block 706, the controller 190 may compare a first identified talker130 to the identified listener 140. The controller 190 may determine,such as through a comparison of talker attributes, listener attributes,listener characteristics and/or through rules and/or logic implementedin the controller 190, whether a stream advertisement and/or data streamfrom the first identified talker 130 may be relevant and/or of interestto the identified listener 140. If the stream advertisement and/or datastream may be relevant, such as in the case of a microphone talker and amicrophone speaker listener, the method may move to block 708. In block708, the controller 190 may include the unique stream ID of the firstidentified talker 130 into a list of relevant stream IDs for theidentified listener 140. If, on the other hand, the stream advertisementand/or data stream is not relevant to the identified listener 140, themethod may move to block 710 and the controller 190 may ignore and/ornot add the unique stream ID of the identified talker 130.

After blocks 708 or 710, the method may move to block 712, where it isdetermined whether or not there are any talkers that have not yet beencompared to the identified listener 140. Where there are talkers, suchas talkers 131-132, that have not yet been compared to the listener 140to determine if stream advertisements and/or data streams from thetalkers 131-132 may be relevant to the identified listener, the methodmay return to block 706, and another talker not previously identified,such as talker 131, may be compared. This process may continue until alltalkers 130, 131, and 132 have been compared to the listener 140 and therelevancy of all possible stream advertisements and/or data streams tothe identified listener 140 have been considered.

Where no talkers remain to be compared to the identified listener atblock 712, the method may proceed to block 714. At block 714, thecontroller 190 may send the completed list of relevant stream IDs, asdetermined in blocks 706-710, to the identified listener 140. In somecircumstances, the list of relevant stream IDs may be sent together asone piece of information and/or data. In other circumstances, a relevantstream ID may be sent to the listener 140 as soon as the controller 190has determined that the stream ID may be relevant, such as immediatelyafter block 708. Various other configurations are possible.

After block 714, the method may proceed to block 716, where it isdetermined whether or not any listeners, such as listeners 141-142, havenot yet been identified by the controller 190. If there are listenersthat have not been identified by the controller 190, the method mayreturn to block 704, and the controller may identify another listener,such as listener 141, and proceed through blocks 706-714 as previouslydiscussed. This method may continue until lists of relevant stream IDshave been sent to all listeners 140, 141, and 142. If, in block 716, nolisteners have yet to be identified by the controller 190, the methodmay end at block 718. In other systems, the controller 190 mayperiodically and/or continuously search for and identify all talkers130, 131, and 132 and/or listeners 140, 141, and 142 on the network,and/or may update lists of relevant stream IDs sent to the listeners140, 141, and 142. Various other methods are possible.

FIG. 8 illustrates an audio video network system which may include anetwork 810 connecting a number of talkers and listeners and acontroller. The network 810 may be or resemble the network 110. Thenetwork 110 may, for example, be an Ethernet AVB network. Othervariations are possible.

The audio video network system may include one or more talkers, such asfront video camera 860, side video camera 865, and a microphone 870. Oneor more of the front video camera 860, side video camera 865, and amicrophone 870 may be Ethernet AVB enabled devices. In some systems, theaudio video network system may include more or less talkers. Forexample, the audio video network may include ten different video camerasrecording video at ten different positions on a stage, ten differentmicrophones recording audio from ten different sources, and/or variousother talkers. Various numbers and combinations of talkers may beincluded in the network. While the talkers in the audio video networksystem may be, and may be described as, the actual devices themselves,such as a video camera or a microphone, it should be appreciated that insome systems, the talker may be or may include a computer or otherelectronic controlling device which may be used and/or operate tocontrol the video camera or the microphone, such as some or all of thefeatures of a computer system 1000 shown in FIG. 10 and described later.

The front video camera 860 may, for example, be a video camera directedto a front of a stage. The side video camera 865 may be a video cameradirected to a side of the stage, and may otherwise function similarly tothe front video camera 860. The front video camera 860 and/or side videocamera 865 may record, receive, process, and/or distribute informationand data related to a video recorded by the front video camera 860and/or side video camera 865. The front video camera 860 and/or sidevideo camera 865 may advertise, output, and/or communicate, such asthrough a stream advertisement, that the front video camera 860 hasinformation and/or data related to the recorded video that the frontvideo camera 860 wishes to stream across the Ethernet AVB network 810,such as with or using a data stream or other data signal. This streamadvertisement may be received by one or more of the other talkers andlisteners connected with the Ethernet AVB network 810, which, ifinterested in the stream, may register for and/or receive the advertiseddata streams. One or both of the front video camera 860 and side videocamera 865 may advertise information and/or data streams across theEthernet AVB network 810 simultaneously, such as with simultaneousstream advertisements.

The microphone 870 may, for example, be a microphone placed on a stage.The microphone may record, received, process, and/or distributeinformation and data related to audio recorded by the microphone 870.The microphone 870 may advertise, output, and/or communicate, such aswith a stream advertisement, that the microphone 870 wishes to streamthe information and/or data related to the recorded audio across theEthernet AVB network 810 with or using a data stream or other datasignal. This stream advertisement may be received by one or more of theother talkers and listeners connected with the Ethernet AVB network 810,which, if interested in the stream, may register for and/or receive theadvertised data streams. Information may be advertised by the microphone870 and one or more other talkers simultaneously, such as withsimultaneous stream advertisements. In some systems, no data is sent bya talker, such as the microphone 870, when no registrations for the datastreams have been received.

The audio video network system may include one or more listeners, suchas the left lights 840, the right lights 845, the left speaker 850, theright speaker 855, the side monitor 835, and/or the front monitor 840.One or more of the left lights 840, the right lights 845, the leftspeaker 850, the right speaker 855, the side monitor 835, and/or thefront monitor 840 may be Ethernet AVB enabled devices. In some systems,the audio video network system may include more or less listeners. Forexample, the audio video network may include ten different speakers atten different positions facing an audience, ten different televisionmonitors showing ten different videos from ten different sources, and/orvarious other listeners. Various numbers and combinations of listenersmay be included in the network. While the listeners in the audio videonetwork system may be, and may be described as, the actual devicesthemselves, such as the left lights or front monitor, it should beappreciated that in some systems, the listener may be or may include acomputer or other electronic controlling device which may be used and/oroperate to control the left lights or front monitor, such as some or allof the features of a computer system 1000 shown in FIG. 10 and describedlater.

The left lights 840 and the right lights 845 may, for example, be lightsor light controlling electronics connected to the lights. The leftlights 840 and/or the right lights 845 may operate based on signalsreceived over the network 810. For example, the left lights 840 may turnon when a “left lights=ON” signal is received across the network, suchas from the mixing board 890. The right lights 845 may turn on when a“right lights=ON” signal is received across the network, such as fromthe mixing board 890. The left lights 840 and/or the right lights 845may not process or have any response to other commands or signals, suchas audio signals advertised by the microphone 870. The left lights 840and/or the right lights 845 may receive and store information aboutreceived stream advertisements and/or data streams, but may otherwiseignore such commands or signals.

The left speaker 850 and the right speaker 855 may be audio speakers oraudio speaker controlling electronics connected to a left and/or rightspeaker. The left speaker 850 and/or right speaker 855 may, for example,respond to and/or operate based on audio data streams or signalsreceived over the network 810. For example, the left speaker 850 mayprocess and/or output a left audio data stream or signal over thenetwork, such as a left audio data stream from the mixing board 890and/or from the microphone 870. The right speaker 855 may process and/oroutput a right audio data stream or signal over the network, such as aright audio data stream from the mixing board 890 and/or from themicrophone 870. The left speaker 850 and/or the right speaker 855 maynot process or have any response to other commands or signals, such aslight control signals advertised by the mixing board or video datastreams or signals advertised by the front video camera 860 or sidevideo camera 865. The left speaker 850 and/or the right speaker 855 mayreceive and store information about received stream advertisementsand/or data streams, but may otherwise ignore such commands or signals.

The side monitor 835 and the front monitor 830 may be video monitorssuch as television monitors or video monitor controlling electronicsconnected with video monitors. The side monitor 835 and/or front monitor830 may, for example, respond to and/or operate based on received videodata streams or signals received over the network, such as data streamsadvertised and/or sent by the side video camera 865 and/or the frontvideo camera 860. For example, the side monitor 835 may process and/oroutput a side video data stream or signal advertised over the network810, such as a side video data stream from the side video camera 865 orthe mixing board 890. The front monitor 830 may process and/or output afront video data stream or signal advertised over the network 810, suchas a front video data stream from the front video camera 860 or themixing board 890. The side monitor 835 and the front monitor 830 may notprocess or have any response to other commands or signals, such as lightcontrol signals advertised by the mixing board 890 or audio data streamsor signals advertised by the microphone 870. The side monitor 835 andthe front monitor 830 may receive and store information about receivedstream advertisements and/or data streams, but may otherwise ignore suchcommands or signals.

The mixing board 890 of the system may perform numerous functions. Insome systems, one or all of the talkers and/or listeners may beconnected to the mixing board 890. The mixing board 890 may act as a hubfor all of the stream advertisements, data streams and/or signals sentby talkers across the network 810. In some systems, the mixing board 890may adjust and/or process data streams that may be sent by talkersacross the network 810. In other systems, one or more talkers and/orlisteners may be directly connected, and/or the data streams from thetalkers may pass across the network 810 and/or may not be receivedand/or monitored or controlled by the mixing board 890. The mixing board890 may be or may include an application and/or computer program whichmay allow a user to pre-arrange, create, and/or edit theresponsibilities of talkers and listeners, such as throughout aperformance on a stage, and/or to

The mixing board 890 may identify, specify, and/or store informationregarding each of the talkers, such as the front video camera 860, theside video camera 865, and/or the microphone 870. The mixing board 890may identify, or in some cases may assign, a specific and/or uniquestream ID to each of the talkers 860, 865, and/or 870.

Any of the listeners 830, 835, 840, 845, 850, and/or 855 may operate inone or more modes, such as in a sparse mode or a full mode. In somesystems, the mixing board 890 may identify and/or receive informationfrom one or more of the listeners 830, 835, 840, 845, 850, and/or 855.The mixing board 890 may identify and/or determine those talkers 860,865, and/or 870, stream advertisements, stream IDs, and/or data streamssent from those talkers 860, 865, and/or 870 which may be of interestand/or used by each of the listeners 830, 835, 840, 845, 850, and/or855.

The mixing board 890 may communicate to each of the listeners 830, 835,840, 845, 850, and/or 855 the specific and/or unique stream IDs of thedata streams from the talkers 860, 865, and/or 870 of interest and/oruseful to the listeners. The stream IDs sent by the mixing board 890 maybe sent to a sparse mode engine 260 in each listener that is, is to be,and/or is configured or operable to be operated in sparse mode. Thesparse mode engine 260 of each listener 830, 835, 840, 845, 850, and/or855 may then only pass those stream advertisements with a stream IDmatching those stream IDs sent by the mixing board 890 onto the upperlayer applications 220 of the listener operating in sparse mode. In somesystems, the mixing board 890 may communicate the specific and/or uniquestream IDs of talkers that are of interest to listeners only when thelisteners are operating in, or capable of operating in, sparse mode. Inother systems, the mixing board 890 may communicate the specific and/orunique stream IDs of talkers that are of interest to listeners to alllisteners 830, 835, 840, 845, 850, and/or 855. Various othercombinations are possible. Each of the listeners 830, 835, 840, 845,850, and/or 855 that are capable of operating in both a sparse modeand/or a full mode may be configured and/or operate in either mode in amanner similar to the listeners 140, 141, and 142 and/or listener 210 asprevious described. Various other configurations are possible.

In some systems, no controller 190 may be necessary or included. Forexample, in some systems, one or more listeners 140, 141, and 142 may beprogrammed to know one or more talkers 130, 131, and 132 which thelistener 140, 141, and 142 may be interested in. In these systems, thesparse mode engine 260 of the listener 140, 141, and 142 may stillreceive a stream ID query 420 from the upper layer application 220identifying those stream IDs that the listener may be interested in, orthe sparse mode engine 260 may already be programmed to know the streamIDs that the listener is interested in. In these systems, the sparsemode engine 260 may operate to filter out stream advertisements that arenot relevant or of interest to the listener 210.

A situation where a controller 190 may not be required may exist, forexample, in systems which are unlikely to change or add talkers orlisteners over an extended period of time. An example of such a systemmay be the automobile communication system shown in FIG. 9. Theautomobile communication system in FIG. 9 may include one or more offront speakers 910, rear speakers 915, a CD player 920, a radio 930, arear seating display monitor 940, a DVD player 950, and/or a head unit990.

The front speakers 910 may be programmed to recognize and play audiofrom audio data streams and/or signals advertised by the CD player 920and/or the radio 930. The front speakers 910 may include rules and/orlogic to determine which audio data streams and/or signals to play, whenaudio data streams are received from both the CD player 920 and theradio 930.

The front speakers 910 may be similar to and/or resemble any of thelisteners 140, 141, and 142 and/or listener 210. The front speakers 910may have an upper layer application 220 which may control the operationof the physical speakers, and a stream reservation protocol stack 230which may include a sparse mode engine 260. The upper layer application220 and/or the sparse mode engine 260 may be programmed and/or awarethat the only stream advertisements and/or data streams of importance tothe front speakers 910 may be those stream advertisements and/or datastreams from the talker CD player 920 and the talker radio 930. Wherethe upper layer application 220 is programmed, the upper layerapplication may send a mode switch signal 410 to the sparse mode engine260 to initiate and/or switch between a full mode operation and a sparsemode operation. In other systems, the sparse mode engine 260 may alreadyknow the stream IDs. In these systems, the sparse mode engine 260 may bepermanently activated and/or operate in a sparse mode continuously, oralternatively may be directed and/or controlled by mode switch signals410 from the upper layer application 220. In either case, in sparsemode, the sparse mode engine 260 may operate as in listener 210 previousdiscussed, and may only transmit, output, send, forward, and/or passstream advertisements with stream IDs that match the stream IDs of theCD player 920 and/or the talker radio 930.

The rear speakers 915 may be similar to and/or resemble any of thelisteners 140, 141, and 142 and/or listener 210, and/or may resemble thefront speakers 910 in operation. The upper layer application 220 and/orthe sparse mode engine 260 of the rear speakers 915 may be programmedand/or aware that the only stream advertisements and/or data streams ofimportance to the rear speakers 915 may be those stream advertisementsand/or data streams from the talker CD player 920, the talker radio 930,and/or the DVD player 950. The rear speakers 915 may include rulesand/or logic to determine which audio data streams and/or signals toplay, when audio data streams are received from more than one of the CDplayer 920, the radio 930, and/or the DVD player 950. Where the upperlayer application 220 is programmed, the upper layer application maysend a mode switch signal 410 to the sparse mode engine 260 to initiateand/or switch between a full mode operation and a sparse mode operation.In other systems, the sparse mode engine 260 may already know the streamIDs. In these systems, the sparse mode engine 260 may be permanentlyactivated and/or operate in a sparse mode continuously, or alternativelymay be directed and/or controlled by mode switch signals 410 from theupper layer application 220. In sparse mode, the sparse mode engine 260of the rear speakers 915 may operate as in listener 210 previousdiscussed, and may only transmit, output, send, forward, and/or passstream advertisements with stream IDs that match the stream IDs of theCD player 920, the talker radio 930, and/or the DVD player 950.

The rear seating display monitor 940 may be similar to and/or resembleany of the listeners 140, 141, and 142 and/or listener 210, and/or mayresemble the front speakers 910 or rear speakers 915 in operation. Theupper layer application 220 and/or the sparse mode engine 260 of therear seating display monitor 940 may be programmed and/or aware that theonly stream advertisements and/or data streams of importance to the rearseating display monitor 940 may be those stream advertisements and/ordata streams from the DVD player 950. Where the upper layer application220 is programmed, the upper layer application may send a mode switchsignal 410 to the sparse mode engine 260 to initiate and/or switchbetween a full mode operation and a sparse mode operation. In othersystems, the sparse mode engine 260 may already know the stream IDs. Inthese systems, the sparse mode engine 260 may be permanently activatedand/or operate in a sparse mode continuously, or alternatively may bedirected and/or controlled by mode switch signals 410 from the upperlayer application 220. In sparse mode, the sparse mode engine 260 ofrear seating display monitor 940 may operate as in listener 210 previousdiscussed, and may only transmit, output, send, forward, and/or passstream advertisements with stream IDs that match the stream IDs of theDVD player 950.

The system may also include a head unit 990. In some systems, the headunit 990 may act as a controller 190, but this is not required. The headunit 990 may, in some circumstances, operate and/or control one or moreof the talkers, such as the CD player 920, the radio 930, and/or the DVDplayer 950. In some systems, the head unit 990 may perform and/ordetermine the rules or logic which may identify what data stream is tobe processed and/or played by one or more of the listeners, but this isnot required.

Various other systems may use and/or incorporate the sparse modefeatures and components described. For example, a home theater systemmay have numerous talkers, such as DVD players, HDMI devices, mp3players, cable boxes, satellite receivers, and various other talkers, aswell as numerous listeners, such as speakers, television screens, andvarious other listeners. In some home theater systems, atalker/listener, such as an audio-video receiver or other receiver, maybe attached and/or connected with one or more of the talkers andlisteners, such as over an Ethernet AVB network. The talkers, listeners,and/or talker/listeners of the home theater network may operate and/orresemble the talkers 130, 131, and 132, the listeners 140, 141, and 142,and/or the talker/listener 150. In another example, a sparse mode engineand/or sparse mode capabilities may be added to numerous other devices,such as a matrix controller. While the systems and methods described mayoften be discussed in connection with MSRP attributes, it should beappreciated that these techniques may be applied to Multiple MACRegistration Protocol (“MMRP”) attributes as well. Other variations arepossible.

One or more of the talkers 130, 131, and 132, listeners 140, 141, and142, talker/listeners 150, and/or controllers 190 may be and/or mayinclude a portion or all of one or more computing devices of variouskinds, such as the computing device in FIG. 10. FIG. 10 illustrates anexample of a general computer system designated 1000. Any of thecomponents from the listener 210, such as the upper layer application220, the stream reservation protocol stack 230, the MSRP attributedatabase 250, and/or the spare mode engine 260, may include a portion orall of the computer system 1000. The computer system 1000 can include aset of instructions that can be executed to cause the computer system1000 to perform any one or more of the methods or computer basedfunctions disclosed. The computer system 1000 may operate as astandalone device or may be connected, e.g., using a network, to othercomputer systems or peripheral devices.

In a networked deployment, the computer system 1000 may operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client user computer in a server-clientuser network environment, or as a peer computer system in a peer-to-peer(or distributed) network environment. The computer system 1000 can alsobe implemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile device, a palmtop computer, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a communications device, a wirelesstelephone, a land-line telephone, a control system, a camera, a scanner,a facsimile machine, a printer, a pager, a personal trusted device, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any other machinecapable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine. In a particularexample, the computer system 1000 can be implemented using electronicdevices that provide voice, audio, video or data communication. Further,while a single computer system 1000 is illustrated, the term “system”shall also be taken to include any collection of systems or sub-systemsthat individually or jointly execute a set, or multiple sets, ofinstructions to perform one or more computer functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, the computer system 1000 may include aprocessor 1002, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both. The processor 1002 may be a component ina variety of systems. For example, the processor 1002 may be part of astandard personal computer or a workstation. The processor 1002 may beone or more general processors, digital signal processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, servers,networks, digital circuits, analog circuits, combinations thereof, orother now known or later developed devices for analyzing and processingdata. The processor 1002 may implement a software program, such as codegenerated manually (i.e., programmed).

The term “module” may be defined to include a plurality of executablemodules. As described herein, the modules are defined to includesoftware, hardware or some combination thereof executable by aprocessor, such as processor 1002. Software modules may includeinstructions stored in memory, such as memory 1004, or another memorydevice, that are executable by the processor 1002 or other processor.Hardware modules may include various devices, components, circuits,gates, circuit boards, and the like that are executable, directed,and/or controlled for performance by the processor 1002.

The computer system 1000 may include a memory 1004, such as a memory1004 that can communicate via a bus 1008. The memory 1004 may be a mainmemory, a static memory, or a dynamic memory. The memory 1004 mayinclude, but is not limited to computer readable storage media such asvarious types of volatile and non-volatile storage media, including butnot limited to random access memory, read-only memory, programmableread-only memory, electrically programmable read-only memory,electrically erasable read-only memory, flash memory, magnetic tape ordisk, optical media and the like. In one example, the memory 1004includes a cache or random access memory for the processor 1002. Inalternative examples, the memory 1004 is separate from the processor1002, such as a cache memory of a processor, the system memory, or othermemory. The memory 1004 may be an external storage device or databasefor storing data. Examples include a hard drive, compact disc (“CD”),digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card, memory stick, floppy disc,universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device, or any other deviceoperative to store data. The memory 1004 is operable to storeinstructions executable by the processor 1002. The functions, acts ortasks illustrated in the figures or described may be performed by theprogrammed processor 1002 executing the instructions stored in thememory 1004. The functions, acts or tasks are independent of theparticular type of instructions set, storage media, processor orprocessing strategy and may be performed by software, hardware,integrated circuits, firm-ware, micro-code and the like, operating aloneor in combination. Likewise, processing strategies may includemultiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and the like.

As shown, the computer system 1000 may or may not further include adisplay unit 1010, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organiclight emitting diode (OLED), a flat panel display, a solid statedisplay, a cathode ray tube (CRT), a projector, a printer or other nowknown or later developed display device for outputting determinedinformation. The display 1010 may act as an interface for the user tosee the functioning of the processor 1002, or specifically as aninterface with the software stored in the memory 1004 or in the driveunit 1016.

Additionally, the computer system 1000 may include an input device 1012configured to allow a user to interact with any of the components ofsystem 1000. The input device 1012 may be a number pad, a keyboard, or acursor control device, such as a mouse, or a joystick, touch screendisplay, remote control or any other device operative to interact withthe computer system 1000.

In a particular example, as depicted in FIG. 10, the computer system1000 may also include a disk or optical drive unit 1016. The disk driveunit 1016 may include a computer-readable medium 1022 in which one ormore sets of instructions 1024, e.g. software, can be embedded. Further,the instructions 1024 may embody one or more of the methods or logic asdescribed. In a particular example, the instructions 1024 may residecompletely, or at least partially, within the memory 1004 and/or withinthe processor 1002 during execution by the computer system 1000. Thememory 1004 and the processor 1002 also may include computer-readablemedia as discussed above.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium thatincludes instructions 1024 or receives and executes instructions 1024responsive to a propagated signal so that a device connected to anetwork 1026 can communicate voice, video, audio, images or any otherdata over the network 1026. Further, the instructions 1024 may betransmitted or received over the network 1026 via a communication portor interface 1020, and/or using a bus 1008. The communication port orinterface 1020 may be a part of the processor 1002 or may be a separatecomponent. The communication port 1020 may be created in software or maybe a physical connection in hardware. The communication port 1020 may beconfigured to connect with a network 1026, external media, the display1010, or any other components in system 1000, or combinations thereof.The connection with the network 1026 may be a physical connection, suchas a wired Ethernet connection or may be established wirelessly asdiscussed later. Likewise, the additional connections with othercomponents of the system 1000 may be physical connections or may beestablished wirelessly. The network 1026 may alternatively be directlyconnected to the bus 1008.

The network 1026 may include wired networks, wireless networks, EthernetAVB networks, or combinations thereof. The wireless network may be acellular telephone network, an 802.11, 802.16, 802.20, 802.1Q or WiMaxnetwork. Further, the network 1026 may be a public network, such as theInternet, a private network, such as an intranet, or combinationsthereof, and may utilize a variety of networking protocols now availableor later developed including, but not limited to TCP/IP based networkingprotocols.

While the computer-readable medium is shown to be a single medium, theterm “computer-readable medium” may include a single medium or multiplemedia, such as a centralized or distributed database, and/or associatedcaches and servers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” may also include any medium that is capableof storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution bya processor or that cause a computer system to perform any one or moreof the methods or operations disclosed. The “computer-readable medium”may be non-transitory, and may be tangible.

In an example, the computer-readable medium can include a solid-statememory such as a memory card or other package that houses one or morenon-volatile read-only memories. Further, the computer-readable mediumcan be a random access memory or other volatile re-writable memory.Additionally, the computer-readable medium can include a magneto-opticalor optical medium, such as a disk or tapes or other storage device tocapture carrier wave signals such as a signal communicated over atransmission medium. A digital file attachment to an e-mail or otherself-contained information archive or set of archives may be considereda distribution medium that is a tangible storage medium. Accordingly,the disclosure is considered to include any one or more of acomputer-readable medium or a distribution medium and other equivalentsand successor media, in which data or instructions may be stored.

In an alternative example, dedicated hardware implementations, such asapplication specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arrays andother hardware devices, can be constructed to implement various parts ofthe system. Applications that may include the apparatus and systems canbroadly include a variety of electronic and computer systems. One ormore examples described may implement functions using two or morespecific interconnected hardware modules or devices with related controland data signals that can be communicated between and through themodules, or as portions of an application-specific integrated circuit.Accordingly, the present system encompasses software, firmware, andhardware implementations.

The system described may be implemented by software programs executableby a computer system. Further, in a non-limited example, implementationscan include distributed processing, component/object distributedprocessing, and parallel processing. Alternatively, virtual computersystem processing can be constructed to implement various parts of thesystem.

The system is not limited to operation with any particular standards andprotocols. For example, standards for Internet and other packet switchednetwork transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP) may be used.Such standards are periodically superseded by faster or more efficientequivalents having essentially the same functions. Accordingly,replacement standards and protocols having the same or similar functionsas those disclosed are considered equivalents thereof.

Operation of a listener 210 in sparse mode may be advantageous to thelistener 210 for many reasons. Listeners 140, 141, and 142 connectedwith a network 110 may be configured and/or operable to receive andstore stream advertisements and/or data streams of interest to thelisteners 140, 141, and 142 at the upper layer applications 220. Thismay free up memory, processing power, and/or other resources of thelisteners 140, 141, and 142, which may be dedicated and/or used forother functions. Sparse mode and/or sparse mode engines may allow anEthernet AVB end-station and/or device to only report and storeinformation related to stream IDs the device is interested in. The upperlayer applications 220 of the listener 210 may not receive, have toparse through, and/or store information related to stream advertisementsand/or data streams which the listener 210 may not be interested inand/or further process. For example, a listener 210 that may be aspeaker may not understand, process, and/or care about a video datastream from a front camera. The listener 210 may be a low power andlimited memory device. In full mode, the listener 210 may still,however, receive at least the stream advertisements from the frontcamera, and may be required to consider and/or store information relatedto the video data stream. In sparse mode, the upper layer application220 may not receive the stream advertisement, which the upper layerapplication 220 is not interested in, and may not have to devote anyresources or memory to the video data stream. As such, upper layerapplication 220 and/or listener 210 may not occupy resources and/ormemory to stream advertisements and/or data streams that may beirrelevant to the upper layer application 220. This may free upresources for the upper layer application 220 and/or listener 210 thatcan be devoted to other processes of more interest to the upper layerapplication 220 and/or listener 210.

Sparse mode and/or sparse mode engines may reduce CPU overhead andmemory storage requirements in AVB enabled devices, which may becomeincreasingly important and effective as more data streams are added to anetwork 110. This may allow AVB enabled devices with low power and/orsmall footprints to co-exist with large stream count networks. Inaddition, more powerful devices may take advantage of sparse mode toallow more system resources to be available for other purposes,including, but not limited to, a more responsive “feel” to the user.

In addition, configuring the listeners 140, 141, and 142 to be capableof operating in a sparse mode may require minimal adjustments, such asadding a sparse mode engine 260. Also, switching between operation in afull mode and a sparse mode may merely require a signal or othernotification, such as a mode switch signal 410, to be sent to the sparsemode engine 260, leaving all other components of the listeners 140, 141,and 142 unchanged and/or undisturbed and/or operating in a continuousand/or unchanging mode. No components of the listener 210 may need to bereconfigured and/or altered between a full mode and a sparse mode, otherthan a sparse mode engine 260. Another advantage may be that deviceswhich may be operable in sparse mode may be intermingled with non-sparsemode devices in a network without required a reconfiguration of thenetwork.

As another advantages, in some systems, the upper layer application 220of a listener 210 may experience a software restart because of afirmware update. When that happens, the listener 210 may either restartstream reservation protocol stack 230, which wasn't affected by therestart, or may query the stream reservation protocol stack 230 with aspecial stream ID query. The special stream ID query may requestinformation about every stream a sparse mode engine 260 has alreadyheard about. Normally a firmware update and restart would cause atemporary interruption in A/V streaming. By allowing the hardware tocontinue to play the A/V streams while the upper layer application 220is reset, the sparse mode may make the reset transparent to someonelistening to the audio or watching the video streams. Various otheradvantages of the above-described system are possible.

While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it willbe apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many moreembodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of theinvention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except inlight of the attached claims and their equivalents.

1. A listener system for use with an Ethernet Audio-Video Bridging(“AVB”) network, the listener system comprising: an upper layerapplication; and a stream reservation protocol stack in communicationwith the upper layer application, the stream reservation protocol stackconfigured to receive stream advertisements on the Ethernet AVB network,the stream reservation protocol stack configured to operate in a sparsemode and a full mode; and where the stream reservation protocol stack isfurther configured to transmit a first subset of the received streamadvertisements to the upper layer application and to not transmit asecond subset of the received stream advertisements to the upper layerapplication during operation in the sparse mode.
 2. The listener systemof claim 1, where the upper layer application is configured to generateand transmit a query to the stream reservation protocol stack, the queryidentifying data streams relevant to the listener system.
 3. Thelistener system of claim 2, where each stream advertisement in the firstsubset of the received stream advertisements matches one of theidentified data streams relevant to the listener.
 4. The listener systemof claim 3, where no stream advertisements in the second subset ofreceived stream advertisements match any of the identified data streamsrelevant to the listener.
 5. The listener system of claim 2, where thequery includes a list of talker attributes, where each of the talkerattributes corresponds to a talker in communication with the EthernetAVB network.
 6. The listener system of claim 5, where each of the talkerattributes comprises a unique stream identifier.
 7. The listener systemof claim 2, where the upper layer application is configured to receive asignal from a controller in communication with the Ethernet AVB networkprior to generation and transmittal of the query to the streamreservation protocol stack, the signal specifying the data streamsrelevant to the listener, and where the query transmitted by the upperlayer application to the stream reservation protocol stack consists ofstream identifiers for the data streams specified in the signal from thecontroller.
 8. The listener system of claim 1, where the received streamadvertisements consist of stream advertisements in the first subset ofthe received stream advertisements and the second subset of the receivedstream advertisements.
 9. The listener system of claim 1, where thestream reservation protocol stack is further configured to transmit allof the received stream advertisements to the upper layer applicationduring operation in the full mode.
 10. The listener system of claim 1,where the upper layer application is further configured to send a modeswitch signal to the stream reservation protocol stack, the streamreservation protocol stack further operable to switch operation of thestream reservation protocol stack between the full mode and the sparsemode in response to the mode switch signal.
 11. The listener system ofclaim 1, where the upper layer application is configured to transmit astream identifier to a sparse mode engine included in the streamreservation protocol stack, the stream identifier identifying a datastream relevant to the listener.
 12. The listener system of claim 11,where the sparse mode engine is configured to compare the identifieddata stream relevant to the listener to the received streamadvertisements.
 13. The listener system of claim 12, where the sparsemode engine transmits one of the received stream advertisements thatmatches the identified data stream relevant to the listener and ignoresthe received stream advertisements that do not match the identified datastream relevant to the listener.
 14. A computer-implemented method ofoperating a stream reservation protocol stack of a listener systemconnected with an Ethernet Audio-Video Bridging (“AVB”) network, themethod comprising: receiving, through the use of at least one processor,a plurality of stream advertisements from the Ethernet AVB network witha stream reservation protocol stack included in the listener system;transmitting, through the use of the at least one processor, theplurality of stream advertisements to an upper layer applicationincluded in the listener system when the listener system is functioningin a full mode; and transmitting, through the use of the at least oneprocessor, a first subset of the received stream advertisements to theupper layer application and not transmitting a second subset of thereceived stream advertisements to the upper layer application when thelistener system is operating in a sparse mode.
 15. The method of claim14, further comprising: receiving a mode switch signal from the upperlayer application, the mode switch signal switching a mode of operationof the stream reservation protocol stack between the full mode and thesparse mode.
 16. The method of claim 14, further comprising: receiving aquery from the upper layer application indentifying at least one streamidentifier for a data stream of interest to the listener system.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, where the data stream of interest comprises a datastream that the listener is configured to process and produce an outputas a result of the processed data stream.
 18. The method of claim 16,further comprising: comparing the plurality of stream advertisements tothe at least one stream identifier when operating in the sparse mode;adding each stream advertisement of the plurality of streamadvertisements that matches at least one of the at least one streamidentifier to the first subset of the received stream advertisementsbased on the comparison; and adding all stream advertisements of theplurality of stream advertisements that do not match at least one of theat least one stream identifier to the second subset of the receivedstream advertisements based on the comparison.
 19. The method of claim18, where the comparison comprises comparing the at least one streamidentifier with a plurality of stream identifiers, each of the pluralityof stream identifiers associated with each of the plurality of streamadvertisements respectively.
 20. A network communication system,comprising: an Ethernet Audio-Video Bridging (“AVB”) network; a talkerin communication with the Ethernet AVB network and configured toadvertise a data stream on the Ethernet AVB network with a streamadvertisement; and a plurality of listeners in communication with theEthernet AVB network and configured to operate in a sparse mode and in afull mode; and where the plurality of listeners are further configuredto compare the stream advertisement to one or more stream identifiersassociated with one or more data streams of interest to the listenerwhen operating in the sparse mode.
 21. The network communication systemof claim 20, further comprising: a controller in communication with theEthernet AVB network, the talker, and the plurality of listeners; wherethe controller is configured to identify a talker stream identifierassociated with the talker, determine a subset of the plurality oflisteners that are interested in the advertised data stream, andtransmit the talker stream identifier to the subset of the plurality oflisteners.
 22. The system of claim 21, where the subset of the pluralityof listeners comprises listeners configured to process the advertiseddata stream.
 23. The system of claim 21, where each of the pluralitylisteners are configured to receive the talker stream identifier fromthe controller and compare the talker stream identifier to the streamadvertisement.
 24. A computer program product having a computer readablemedium tangibly embodying computer executable code for operating astream reservation protocol stack of a listener system connected with anEthernet Audio-Video Bridging (“AVB”) network, said product comprising:code for receiving a plurality of stream advertisements from theEthernet AVB network with a stream reservation protocol stack includedin the listener system; code for transmitting the plurality of streamadvertisements to an upper layer application included in the listenersystem when the listener system is functioning in a full mode; and codefor transmitting a first subset of the received stream advertisements tothe upper layer application and not transmitting a second subset of thereceived stream advertisements to the upper layer application when thelistener system is operating in a sparse mode.
 25. The product of claim24, further comprising: code for receiving a mode switch signal from theupper layer application, the mode switch signal switching a mode ofoperation of the stream reservation protocol stack between the full modeand the sparse mode.
 26. The product of claim 24, further comprising:code for receiving a query from the upper layer application indentifyinga data stream of interest to the listener system.
 27. The product ofclaim 26, where the data stream of interest comprises a data stream thatthe listener is configured to process and produce an output as a resultof the processed data stream.
 28. The product of claim 26, furthercomprising: code for comparing the plurality of stream advertisements toa stream identifier for the data stream of interest when operating inthe sparse mode; code for adding each stream advertisement of theplurality of stream advertisements that matches the stream identifier tothe first subset of the received stream advertisements based on thecomparison; and code for adding all stream advertisements of theplurality of stream advertisements that do not match the streamidentifier to the second subset of the received stream advertisementsbased on the comparison.
 29. The product of claim 28, where thecomparison comprises comparing the stream identifier with a plurality ofstream identifiers, each of the plurality of stream identifiersassociated with each of the plurality of stream advertisementsrespectively.